Marauders
The Marauders (or Marauder State) are, in the beginning, a reclusive and often bloody faction descended from displaced scientists of the Ultor Corporation. They are historically hostile to both the EDF and Red Faction, until they form an alliance with the latter to push the EDF off Mars during the Second Martian Revolution. Following the war, they become very socialite to open up themselves and welcome everyone to visit their land. The uneasy truce between what would become the two Martian states, while being strained heavily at times, lasted at least another half-century. History Beginnings After the fall of the Ultor Corporation in the First Red Faction Uprising, the remaining scientists and technicians flee the Ultor mines and facilities and take up the pretense of the Marauders in order to protect their research, technology, and themselves from the Earth Defense Force and the greater population of Mars - now free from the oppression of their corporation.Red Faction: Guerrilla Over time, new generations of Marauders are born, and the disguise born out of necessity is imprinted into the new generations psyche as a culture and way of life, instead of just a facade to mask themselves from the EDF and Red Faction. Decades on the fringes of Martian civilization, persecuted by the EDF and distrusted by the greater Mars population turns them into a bitter and blood-thirsty group. They often attack the forces of both the Earth Defence Force, the Red Faction and the civilians of Tharsis in a rage against the 'Outlanders.' Second Martian Uprising Samanya, the sister of Vasha, the Marauder's matriarch, leaves the Marauders during the Battle of Mariner Valley for that very reason, unable to stand the self-destructive anger of her people, and helps re-establish the Red Faction with the help of Dan Mason and Hugo Davies.Red Faction: Guerrilla - Demons of the Badlands As a result of their Ultor heritage, the Marauders come to be in possession of the Nano Forge, an Ultor device passes down from their predecessors. The Nano Forge is believed to be the work of Axel Capek, whether just a remnant of his research or a key breakthrough on his behalf it is not clear. The Earth Defence Force is extremely determined to get their hands on the device, but despite their efforts it is Alec Mason and the Red Faction whose hands the Nano Forge fell in to. The Marauders and the Red Faction later form a shaky alliance during the Battle of Eos where they triumph over the EDF, pushing them out of the sector and destroying the EDF Central Command. In the following Battle of Mount Vogel they, together with the Red Faction, kill General Bertram Roth and use the Nano Forge combined with an EDF RM-8 Missile they personally stole to destroy the E.D.S. Hydra. Vasha, their leader, dies defending the Accelerator in that battle, according to general roth and supported by the fact shes never seen again. Alliance with the Red Faction After the Second Martian Revolution, two states form with one, centered in Eos, belonging to the Red Faction and the other, centered in the Badlands, belonging to the Marauders. Between them lay disputed territory, belonging to neither. Initially peace existed between the two nations.Red Faction: Origins With the death of Vasha, the Marauders come under the control of a new Matriarch, Omaya. The Marauder-Red Faction alliance is broken by the killing of Samanya by the White Faction, though the fact is not known nor their existence and the colonist state blamed it on the Marauders. War with the White Faction It was 25 years after the fall of the EDF, in 2150 CE, that the White Faction, an EDF remnant force, under Adam Hale set the two nations of Mars baying at each others throats. Their master plan involved the creation of a Severus-Class Dreadnaught, the same model as the Hydra. Tensions began between the leadership of the Red Faction and the leader of the Marauders, the Matriarch, when the hulk of the Hydra made planetfall near Bradbury. The Marauder investigating party is killed by White Faction forces and found by the Red Faction team sent for the same end. The Marauders, like everyone unaware of the existence of the White Faction, they blame the colonists. One of the members of the Red Faction party, Jake Mason, son of Alec and Samanya Mason, witnesses the presence of the soldiers in white. Nobody believed his story, however, so he tracked the White Faction down to the Madler Crater, construction site of their dreadnaught, and then escape with the aide of friends he made among the Marauders, Corvallis and Leonid. The White Faction move ahead their schedule, firing shells at the Red Faction in their capital, Eos, Jake arrived too late to warn them of the threat and is believed no more than before, the act is attributed to the Marauders. A wing of Red Faction AAX Ravens is dispatched to attack the Marauders, but are called back on time when the presence of the White Faction became clear. The White Faction dreadnaught in Bakhuysen Trench then positions to attack the Marauder Palace, but Hale instead orders it be re-aimed at the Terraformer. Alec Mason sacrifices his life to destroy the dreadnaught before it can fire and peace is restored between the two states. Jake Mason forms a new Red Faction, consisting of both colonists and Marauders, to use the culture and knowledge of both to protect their respective states. Adam Hale manages to survive the destruction of the dreadnaught and later becomes the leader of the Cultists.Red Faction: Armageddon Cultist War The Cultists are a fanatical, extremist offshoot of the Marauders who came to be lead by Adam Hale when he resurfaces after the destruction of the White Faction. They wage a war on the colonists of Mars which ends when the Cultists storm the Terraformer. The Red Faction attempts to take them down but failed and Hale destroyed it, forcing the entire Martian population to relocate underground. The official intel is that the Cultist leader had died; instead he survived and went to ground with the Cultist movement. Plague Armageddon When the Plague are let loose, the Marauder high command initially fears the Red Faction are planning something. They go to red alert, expecting a full scale attack from the miner state. This doesn't help, and when the Plague struck, they are hit with equal ferocity and surprise. The bulk of the Marauder armed forces is obliterated, and the remnants wouldn't have survived long. Until for the plan proposed by Darius Mason and Kara. The Chancellor, leader of the Marauder state at the time, also went missing. Weapons and tactics Since 2075, the end of the 'Ultor Uprising' when the Marauders first fled their labs and the rest of the Martian population, their need for weapons and tactics with which to defend themselves became a primary concern of their culture. Their weapons have constantly evolved from archiac and makeshift constructions such as those of the Second Martian Revolution to cutting-edge military tech like the Singularity Cannon. s and Shotguns.]] Second Martian Revolution and earlier During the era of the Second Red Faction Uprising, Marauders mainly used Gutters and improvised Shotguns. A small number of them also carries scavenged EDF weapons such as the Assault Rifle and the Peacekeeper, possessing no real known industrial power. Marauders also have powerful grenades for use against light vehicles. On the heavier side of things they also used the Harpoon Turret on some of their makeshift vehicles, such as the Chomper and Raider, which fires lethal metal bolts at great velocity. In the earlier Battle for Mariner Valley, they also often carry the Spiker, a formidable weapon which did much to combat their traditional lack of mid-to-long range weaponry. Another oft-held weapon used in Mariner Valley is the Impaler, a weapon of similar ilk to the Gutter and which is just as deadly whilst also being more effective against buildings. Other Marauder weapons are utilized as well in a more limited capacity, such as the deadly Missile Pod, their own variants of Remote Charges later used by the Red Faction insurgency and the Skulldigger, a blunt melee tool much akin to the Sledgehammer. Another rare weapon is the Pickaxe. Marauders tactics during the Second Martian Uprising are generally typified by surprise raids in small to medium sized groups against both EDF and Red Faction alike. They have a knack of turning up when both of their enemies are already engaged with each other, often coming from several directions at once in order to overwhelm and surprise targets. Alternately, they also turn up when the defense of their targets is lowest - on their own in the middle of nowhere. There are many accounts of families and miners disappearing in the Badlands. Most active at night, in the Badlands, occasionally in Dust and Oasis, and could also be sighted in the Free Fire Zone after the Earth Defense Force was pushed back. The Plague Armageddon and prior After the defeat of the EDF, Marauder weapons technology progressed in leaps and bounds. By the Plague Armageddon, half-a-century later, their technology is barely recognizable from the inspired, but makeshift weapons of the early Marauders. First and foremost, they improve upon the old EDF Singularity Bomb with their own Singularity Cannon - a singular tool of destruction and mayhem. They push nanotechnology as their Ultor predecessors had done, mass-producing Nano Rifles and XNG-5000s. They created the Pulse Grenade Launcher. Most of their work, however, is in weapons platforms - vehicles - whereupon they created some of the most lethal in Martian history. Settlement and population Since their beginnings, the Marauders have expanded into one of the dominant powers on the surface of Mars. Early settlement The Marauder people first sprung from Ultor scientists fleeing retribution from Earth Defence Force after the First Martian Revolution. They hid themselves in the caves beneath Tharsis, living among the distant fringes of Martian civilization and completely cut off, they go unnoticed for decades. Its unknown exactly when they moved to the surface, occupying the furthest reaches of the Badlands. Obviously some time after the terraforming process is sufficiently advanced, but what is known is some of their earliest settlements. They are known to have a large presence in Mariner Valley and a large remote Badlands Stronghold existed beyond the Irradiated Zone during the Second Martian Revolution. There are also a small abandoned Marauder settlement or two there. The Marauder State Over the quarter-century since the fall of the EDF, the Marauders developed their own nation based centrally in the Badlands. Its center of government being the Marauder Palace. Underground Shift After the Cultists lead by Adam Hale destroyes the Terraformer, the Marauder people are forced to relocate underground in order to take shelter from the unpredictable weather which ravages the surface. Clothing and style The early Marauders develop their own style of dress which is crude, savage and frightening in order to deceive and scare their enemies. They often wore gas-masks, grey overalls (to protect them from the irradiated zone) and are reputed to have worn human bone. Later Marauder battle apparel lost much of their savage and rough appearance, but retained their outlandish design. Language Most likely to keep up appearances as a backward blood-thirsty bunch of savages, the early Marauders seem to have invented and used their own language - though they still spoke English. Screeches and howls are also often used to pass messages over long distances which are heard in Badlands, Oasis, Dust and Free Fire Zone. Later Marauders seem to have abandoned the practices of speaking their languages especially after the Second Martian Revolution, though they definitely seem to have retained a unique written language. Vehicles Marauders are excellent mechanics and designers, constantly working from scraps salvaged from the colonists. What is more, their vehicles are a key part of projecting their savage persona to the other Martians. There are two types of vehicles which appear in Tharsis, with an additional three in Mariner Valley. * Jetter - The Jetter is a buggy with one seat and a turret which often appeared in the open wastelands of the Badlands in Tharsis. * Raider - The Raider has platform-like base with three seats, two of which have turrets and often appeared in the open wastelands of the Badlands in Tharsis. * Punisher - The Punisher is a Marauder kind of Heavy Walker which appears in Mariner Valley. * Chomper - The Chomper is a fast dune buggy with two seats, a massive rear spoiler and which often has either two mounted machine guns or two Marauder Harpoon Turrets. It appears in Mariner Valley. * Stomper -The Stomper is a Marauder truck with space for three and a machine gun turret on the back. It appears in Mariner Valley. * Inferno GX - The Inferno GX is a Marauder flyer or aircraft that had a rapid fire cannon and blossom missiles presumably created from the schematic of an Old EDF AAX Raven. Behind the Scenes The Marauders usually wear gas masks (in order to survive in the Irradiated Zone) with spikes on top of their full head masks. They also wear old Ultor scientist clothing (gray pants and long sleeved button-up shirts with black trims). They also seem to screech when they feel threatened (most likely to warn other Marauders). It has been stated that the Marauders were modeled after the Tusken Raiders from Star Wars and the Sand People from Mad Max 2. Trivia *The marauder appearance is probably inspiration from Tusken Raider. A bunch of people that lived on the planet Tatooine in the Star Wars franchise. *They are seen to had abandoned their savage image in favor of a more civilized one after the Second Martian Revolution as by the time of Red Faction: Origins they have adopted more casual winter clothing. References Gallery 016_large.jpg|Concept Art of the Marauders in Armageddon. 098_large.jpg|Another Concept Art of Marauders in the Armageddon. 5865016204_31e952ea36_b.jpg|Concept Art of the Marauders settlement in the underground in Armageddon. Marauder Soldier RFA.JPG|Marauder soldier in Red Faction: Armageddon. Marauder Character RFA.JPG|Corvallis, a marauder soldier playable in the Infestation Mode. ---- Category:Red Faction: Guerrilla Category:Factions Category:Marauders Category:Red Faction: Armageddon